Apple smart phone project rests on Mac OS X tie-ins
For several years now, an elite squad of engineers at Apple Computer have been working diligently to perfect an intuitive smart phone concept that would both conform to the company's integrated model and oblige chief executive Steve Jobs.
As AppleInsider has been told, it's the latter of those two feats that has thus far presented the utmost of challenges, largely preserving the project and its many facets behind the fortified walls of the company's Cupertino, Calif. home base.
It's believed that the initiative, which is different and slightly more ambitious than the company's "iPhone" project, truly gained momentum about three years ago alongside the development of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Some of the device's original features, such as Bluetooth remote control of certain Mac OS X functions, were meant to coincide with those that would have subsequently appeared in the final version of the Tiger operating system.
But as the story goes, Apple took the latest iteration of its proprietary smart phone hardware and software in the early summer of 2005, slapped it together inside an enclosure reminiscent of a fourth-gen iPod, and hit the road.
The objective at the time was to showcase the device's software to potential wireless partners and then appoint contractors to assess network requirements and the feasibility of certain features. Per Jobs' request, the phone's software interface was to be a carbon copy of Front Row -- Apple's one-touch media experience application. "He wanted every feature no more than one click away," a source told AppleInsider.
People familiar with ensuing talks say the "real push" behind the device was its extensive integration with Mac OS X and the Macintosh platform. Apple is said to have demonstrated several features that called upon a still unreleased version of the company's .Mac internet services that would allow users to control certain Mac functions remotely. These included beaming contacts, tasks and calendar appointments to Address Book and iCal from remote locations. However, the Mac maker remained mum on whether it planned to release Windows compatible versions of those desktop applications.